When Julia Quecaño Casimiro left Chile to pick cherries in Herefordshire in June, she hoped she would finally save enough money to study biochemistry. Instead, when she left the farm a month later, she ended up homeless in London with little more than £100.

Casimiro, 23, has become the first person on a seasonal worker visa to take a farm to an employment tribunal. Her claim against Haygrove farm for unlawful deduction of wages, unfair dismissal, discrimination and harassment was filed last week and a preliminary hearing is expected in March.

Haygrove, which supplies cherries and berries to most leading supermarket chains, rejected her allegations and intends “to defend the claim robustly”. The case has been brought by the United Voices of the World union, which represents some of Britain’s most vulnerable low-paid workers...

Haygrove said it always adhered to Home Office rules, that the 32-hour rule applied to the employment start date and that its seasonal workers averaged a 46-hour week this year.

Its director, Angus Davison, said: “Ms Casimiro’s frustration saw her leave Haygrove without notice, and with a free aeroplane ticket home, after working for us for only 11 days.

“However, the vast majority of cherrypickers remained with us in August, September and October and saw their hours of work increase to expectations as the weather regularised.

“We therefore believe that Ms Casimiro’s position is born out of her short-lived, atypical, snapshot experience which coincided with extreme harvesting conditions.”...